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NEW SERIES No. 200 FEBRUARY IB, 1921 

BULLETIN OF THE STATE 

UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 

An Open Letter to 
College Seniors 

by 

Carl E. Seashore 
Dean of the Graduate College 

Third Edition 



PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY, IOWA CITY 



Issued semi-monthly throughout the year. Entered at the post office at Iowa City, 
Iowa, as second class matter. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage 
provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized July 8, 1918. 



ifiBSreiA 



This '^open letter to college seniors'' is sent also to 
a number of college professors in the hope that the 
message which it contains may he of servi^'e in con- 
f-erences with students in regard ^:o the significance of 
graduate study. The problem which is so vital to 
seniors is no less vital to teachers and to all who are 
interested in productive scholarship. Additional 
copies of this bulletin may be obtained on request. 






AN OPEN LETTER TO COLLEGE SENIORS 

After interviewing many hundreds of students upon entering 
the Graduate College I have found certain fundamental ques- 
tions typical of the problems which the ambitious college grad- 
uate has to solve. You may be interested in the answers to some 
of these questions which arise in determining whether or not you 
should proceed to graduate study. 

"Have I the ability?" 

This is the most fundamental question because it determines 
in large part whether or not graduate study shall be worth while. 

Many normal children reach their natural intellectual level 
at the end of the eighth grade ; others at the end of high school. 
Many college students reach their natural level of profitable 
school work at the end of the college course. The higher a course 
is pursued the larger the claims upon capacity and responsibility. 
The holder of the Master of Science, the Master of Arts, or the 
Doctor of Philosophy who is without the natural capacity for 
living at this level of learning may be an unfortunate misfit. 

College grades are not, in any very important sense, a measure 
of capacity, because natural gifts for advanced work may lie 
along a narrow line, such as language to the exclusion of mathe- 
matics, or mathematics to the exclusion of language. Some cap- 
able students loaf through college and wake up to the realities 
before them at the end of the course. But ordinarily and 
roughly we may say that the student who stands in the upper 
half of his class through college has the ability that should war- 
rant him in entering upon graduate work. 

"What are the marks of a good graduate student ?'' 

A better answer to our question may be found in an analyzed 
rating of yourself. Among the outstaJiding traits of one who 
wislies to prepare to pursue a leai^ned carieer are thbse given ia 
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"How do I rate?" 

Record your judgment on each capacity by placing a check 
mark at the appropriate point in the dotted line. Grade con- 
servatively, bearing in mind that, in the long run for a class, 
there should be as many marks below average as above. Ask a 
professor and a classmate to rate you in the same manner ; then 
compare these ratings with your own inventory. 

Such an analyzed rating, giving a profile with the relative 
prominence of each of the features listed, should furnish a fairly 
clear picture of your endowment for original work in science, art 
or literature. A man may be very high in one capacity and low 
in another. No person is uniformly high or low in all. These 
capacities are not of equal value. Some traits are more essential 
for one type of graduate study and career than for another. The 
records should never be averaged. 

Rate yourself on these ten points of ability, and make up your 
mind about your qualifications; then consult your most inspir- 
ing teachers. Take into account that at graduation from college 
you are scarcely prepared for any profession, for the college 
course is merely a preliminary. If you have unusual ability, 
look up the announcements of scholarships offered in the uni- 
versities. Ask the young lady if she will not wait a year or two. 
Turn down that tempting offer of the ''job" which will leave 
you in the rut, and say to yourself ' ' The best is not too good for 
me/' 

"Do I need it?" 

This inquiry may resolve itself into other questions: Do I 
love learning? Do I have a reasonable ambition for achieve- 
ment in learning? Do I realize that the best job in the world 
for me is that in which I would engage for the mere love of it, 
regardless of the bread-and-butter question? Am I determined 
not to stay at the bottom of the ladder, where I now am and 
where the competition is most fierce? Is is true that I am not 
now prepared for any learned occupation? 

Those who answer these questions in the affirmative need 
graduate study. Many will answer them in the negative. Some 
of these are undoubtedly the most promising graduate students 
who, on account of their splendid general ability, are offered 
good jobs. An offer of, for example, $500 more than the average 
3alary paid to college graduates for teaching is a dangerous 



temptation. Such offers tend to lead the student into a false 
feeling that he has reached his goal. Think twice before you 
accept, marry, and settle down, and thereby acquire obligations 
which burn the bridges before you ! 

Many able students have a false self -depreciation. They under- 
estimate their powers, are easily satisfied, and will die ignorant 
of their talents, even of the capacity for feeling intellectual 
needs. 

To most of us the high places seem distant and beyond reach. 
This is perfectly natural, and has its real advantages. We are 
like the pioneer mountain climber. We may have vague notions 
of what lies ahead, but we cannot realize the full view until we 
gain new vantage grounds from which we may look forward to 
the next higher and higher in turn. 

In my own personal experience this was strikingly so. I took 
one year of a preparatory course for teaching in my own country 
school. I took another year to prepare a little better. I took 
three more years to prepare for teaching in a city school. I 
took another year to prepare better. I took another year to 
prepare for teaching in college. I took another year to prepare 
better. I took another year to prepare for teaching in the uni- 
versity. I took two years to prepare better. Thus, from the mo- 
ment I left the plow to the time I had finished my fifth year as 
a graduate student in the university, there came a slow broad- 
ening of the horizon ; for each year my horizon had grown wider 
and wider, and the whole field more full of joy. It is for the joy 
of a broad vision that I write to-day, to bring you this message, 
to cheer you on up to still undreamt of heights. Let me testify 
that you will become more profoundly conscious of these needs 
as you rise in turn from each vantage ground to a higher one. 

"Will it pay?" 

Assuming that you have answered the preceding question in 
the affirmative and have the assurance that you have the ability, 
and that you feel the need of a higher education, a further ques- 
tion arises : Will it pay to reach this higher level through one 
or two years of highly organized graduate work rather than to 
gain the same end in the "school of hard knocks?" 

The ''Forty-niners" went to California by prairie schooners 
and on foot, in any way they could drag themselves over there. 
They got there and it was the boast of their lives. But if you 



want to go to California, you will take the express train. We 
honor our fathers who walked then, but if any of us should walk 
to-day, we should be considered tramps or fools. Just so in the 
preparation for a life-work. The express train is your medium 
of travel. You have unprecedented opportunities for making 
great distance in short time and with comparative comfort. In 
terms of opportunity for achievement, in terms of what is nat- 
ural for live men to do to-day, with the facilities at your com- 
mand — it will pay you to take the express train. The only lim- 
ited express for you is graduate study. 

Whether or not higher education will pay is not the issue here. 
In considering that question you must think of pay in the sense 
of the rewards which make life worth while; such as, the satis- 
faction of man's highest craving for the intellectual life with 
its associations of culture, refinement, freedom, and devotion to 
truth, goodness, and beauty,— a life of leadership, and contribu- 
tion to knowledge, — a life in which, by virtue of your superior 
training, you may influence humanity, understand and command 
the forces of nature, both mental and physical, and live for the 
joy of achieving service at the highest level. 

"Can I afford it?'» 

This applies not only to the economic question but even more 
so to the professional, social, and the domestic; but let us con- 
sider here only the economic. 

If ready money is available for the expenses of a graduate 
course, the economic question is anwered. Let us assume, for 
the sake of argument, that you have no ready money — ^which is 
a common case. In 1789 a noted financier wrote to young men 
some hints on banking, in which he said : 

''Remember that six pounds a year is but a groat a day. For 
this little sum (which may be daily wasted either in time or ex- 
pense unperceived) a man of credit may, on his own security, 
have the constant possession and use of an hundred pounds. 
So much in stock briskly turned by an industrious man, produces 
great advantages." 

If you are a person of good character, six dollars in cash will 
give you the use of one hundred dollars for a year. A graduate 
student costs the university $500 to $1,000 a year, or more. Ac- 
cepting the privilege of graduate study is, therefore, equivalent 
to the acceptance of that amount of money. If you are a good 



student and need the exemption, there are many ways in which 
you may be exempted from tuition fees. With modern libraries 
and laboratories you do not need to spend money on books and 
apparatus to any extent worth mentioning. If you are a super- 
ior student you may compete successfully for stipends, scholar- 
ships, fellowships, assistantships, prizes, etc., which pay clear 
cash. If necessary, the vacation, one-fourth of the entire year, 
may be spent in money-making. The atmosphere of the graduate 
school is democratic and unostentatious. Your entertainment is 
often such as money could not buy. The principal items of ex- 
penses are, therefore, for room, board, clothes, and ordinary 
spending money. 

Cast up an estimated account. Put on one side of the book 
your estimate for one, two or three years of (1) the necessary 
expenses, and (2) your possible earnings, stipends, prizes, ex- 
emptions, etc. Then strike a balance, showing the amount on 
which you must pay interest at 6 per cent. Place on the other 
side an estimate (in any terms you like) of what the one, two 
or three-year course will mean to you in the nature of change in 
the level of life at which you can live. Compare the cost in inter- 
ests, associations, and opportunities for achievement. This wiU 
give you a glimpse of what an inestimable investment you will 
have made at a trifling cost. 

The other alternative is to set out to make money. To this 
there are several objections. Those who actually make money ac- 
quire the love for money and make that their life goal. Those 
who do not make money will never feel that they can afford the 
thing which they had first set out to seek. If there is any middle 
group, of those who make money and go into graduate study, 
they do so at a very great sacrifice, because the time for gradu- 
ate study is then taken from the time of an established career. 

"Is it the practical thing to do?" 

Graduate study is practical. We used to think of the scientific 
investigator as a recluse or a wizard far aloof from the ordinary 
affairs of life; now he is in the public eye, the effective, well- 
known, well-paid public servant, modeled after an Edison, a 
Burbank, a Pasteur. Graduate study is now a proper prepara- 
tion for all higher walks of life. It makes teaching a profession ; 
it brings science into medicine; it broadens the specialized pro- 
fessions ; it strengthens the pulpit ; it organizes industry ; it lays 



the foundation for invention and commercial production; it 
makes knowledge of human society the basis of government and 
public administration; it guides in the development of natural 
resources; it enriches literature; and it furnishes the highest 
opportunities for liberal culture and the advancement of science 
for service. 

Graduate study is far-sighted. This is its chief merit and dis- 
tinguishing characteristic. The advanced student does not ad- 
dress himself directly to invention, manufacture, and the prac- 
tice of an art or a profession. He gives himself to the study of 
fundamental principles which will be of service in his life work. 
In his enthusiasm he is even in danger of taking the motto, 
''Truth for truth's sake." His work must be fundamental. If 
the investigator who gave Marconi the principles of wireless 
telegraphy had aimed directly at saving ships at sea, he probably 
would have failed; but he devoted himself to the mastery of an 
abstract principle and laid a large foundation. Countless 
achievements may be built upon this foundation. 

Thus, graduate study is practical on the largest scale by stand- 
ing for liberal training and culture. It is truth that sets us 
free ; but to free us, it must be just the truth we need. Culture 
in itself is no worthy aim. We must test culture by personal 
worth, by purpose in life, by service, by the ability to put our- 
selves in the place of others. 

"Why not postpone it?" 

In opposition to the economic arguments presented above 
there are some reasons for taking a year or two off between the 
college and the graduate school. If you are under twenty-one it 
would be wise for you to vegetate for a year. If you are in ill 
health, restore physical health first. The emaciated, nervous, 
eye-strained senior, who has degenerated into a neurotic book- 
worm, should cut away from civilization until he learns better 
habits and has made amends by learning how to live. If you 
have a chance to travel, to go on an expedition, to take part in 
a venture that will widen your horizon by knowledge or experi- 
ence, or to serve as an apprentice in some enterprise involving 
learned achievement, take such opportunity and it will count 
toward your graduate study. Anything which develops orig- 
inality, initiative, ingenuity, and self-expression on a large scale 
is excellent p^par'atiotl fo? ffrq.4uate $tudy. L'earia foreign Ian- 



guages, culture, history, society, geography, and art by residence 
in foreign countries at an early age if you can. 

Do not set out merely to make money, for in so doing you 
will defeat your purpose. Do not set out to teach a year in the 
high school unless you are going to be a high school teacher. 
''Teaching a year" is one of the commonest sins at your age, an 
imposition upon the school and a waste in developing a skill 
which is not to be pursued. Prospective physicians and lawyers 
have erred more in this respect than any other class. 

In case of those who are to enter the profession of medicine or 
law, engineering or the ministry, the situations differ. The 
medical student should go immediately from his collegiate train- 
ing, whether the full college course or the minimum requirement, 
to his medical studies. After the medical course he is practically 
required to take one year as an interne, which is regarded as 
graduate study. The man who is ambitious for scientific medi- 
cine will specialize in medical research after that. The law 
student will profit by a year or more of graduate work either 
before or after the law course. The engineer, who has scientific 
ambition, should go directly from the engineering course into 
a graduate course in engineering. The minister would perhaps 
profit most by taking his graduate course first. 

"What are the possibilities of Stipends?" 

Our leading universities offer scholarships to superior stu- 
dents. In most cases these scholarships are equivalent to the 
payment of tuition. Information about these may be obtained 
by addressing the dean of any graduate college that you may 
have in mind. 

With sincere hope that this message may be of some service, 
I remain. 

Very cordially yours, 
Carl E. Seashore, 

Dean of the Graduate College, 
University of Iowa. 



GRADUATE STIPENDS 

IN THE 

UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 

Appointments with stipends are offered in the Graduate Col- 
lege of the University of Iowa for the academic year 1921-1922 
as follows: 

18 Scholars — $200 to $300 a year, with free tuition. 
18 Junior Fellows — $300 to $500 a year, with free tuition. 
3 Senior Fellows— $500 to $800 a year, with free tuition. 
15 Research Assistants, on half time — $600 and upwards, in 

proportion to qualifications for service. 
5 Research Associates — $1,000 and upwards in proportion to 
qualifications for independent achievement and service. 
About 75 Graduate Assistants, on half time, $700 to $800. 

Fellows and Scholars 

Scholarships are open to graduates of any college or university 
in good standing; junior fellowships, to students who already 
have had one or more years of graduate study, or who possess an 
equivalent preparation; and senior fellowships, to students who 
have already earned their doctor's degree, or who have a prep- 
aration substantially equivalent thereto. 

Applications for appointment to fellowships or scholarships 
must be made to the Dean of the College upon blanks prepared 
for the purpose, for action at the spring meeting of the board of 
education, before March 15; for action at the June meeting, 
before May 15th. 

The applicant for a fellowship or a scholarship is expected to 
demonstrate his capacity for original research, and must give 
evidence of marked attainment in one or more lines of study. 
Testimonials from responsible persons as to the general worthi- 
ness of the candidate must accompany the application. 

In awarding scholarships the Graduate Faculty will, other 
things being equal, give preference to graduates of the standard 
colleges of the state; and the number of awards to any college 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 751 237 4 
will depend upon the merit of the candidates presented. Tne 
faculties of these colleges are therefore invited to lend their 
best aid and influence in the selection and recommendation of 
students of high character and scholarship who give real promise 
for research and teaching or other advancement of the arts and 
sciences. 

Research assistants and research associates 

Research assistantships are open only to students who have 
qualified for research service in some specific field in which a 
research project justifies the appointment. They are usually 
appointed on half time for service with the privilege of carrying 
a maximum of two-thirds graduate schedule. Men who have 
completed the work for the doctorate, or equivalent training, 
and desire to devote their time entirely to original work may be 
appointed Research Associates. 

Graduate assistants 

The distinction between Research Assistant and Graduate 
Assistant is that the former is appointed exclusively for assist- 
ance in research whereas the latter is appointed for assistance 
in undergraduate instruction. Graduate students, who are made 
Graduate Assistants, receive their appointments in the various 
departments of undergraduate colleges in the University. Only 
those can be considered for such appointments who have been 
graduated with high record from a standard college and have 
taken advanced courses in the subjects in which they may serve 
as laboratory assistants. The appointments are made for half 
time service to the department with the privilege of carrying 
from one-half to two-thirds of the graduate schedule. Candi- 
dates for such appointments should write directly to the depart- 
ment in which they consider themselves qualified to serve. 



Graduate study is now a proper preparation for all higher 
walks of life. It makes teaching a profession; it brings science 
into medicine; it broadens the specialized professions; it 
strengthens the pulpit; it organizes industry; it lays the founda- 
tions for inventions and commercial production; it makes knowl- 
edge of human society the basis of government and public ad- 
ministration; it guides in the development of natural resources; 
it enriches literature; and it furnishes the highest opporttmities 
for liberal culture and the advancement of science for service ^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 751 237 4 



